


The King's Brood

by pseudophoenix



Category: The Underland Chronicles - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Family, Pre-Series, Prequel, TUC Fic Exchange 2014, tuc fic exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-14
Updated: 2014-12-14
Packaged: 2018-03-01 11:27:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2771300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pseudophoenix/pseuds/pseudophoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>TUC Fic Exchange 2014 piece #1: Ripred’s life before his family died.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The King's Brood

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! It's great to be writing TUC stuff again for the holidays. I've been waiting for the Fic Exchange to roll around again all year. This is for datte-ba of Tumblr, who requested major Ripred feels! I hope you all enjoy.

Watchclaw, Showstep, Setjaw, Packgut, and Silksharp. This was Ripred’s family.

He didn’t like to refer to them as his “mate and four pups,” though, because that would just be an insult to their individuality. When any one of his hunting buddies asked how big his pack was, Ripred didn’t reply with a number. He told his friends all about each and every member of his little brood.

He told them about Watchclaw, his ever-observant mate. Ripred loved her more than anything in the Underland. She had a beautiful rusty-red coat like blood that Ripred fell in love with the moment he laid eyes on it. She was clever and stubborn and he thought she was fit to be queen. Whenever he told her this, she would only respond in joking squeaks, “Only because you believe you should be king, yeah?” Although, Ripred often thought that even King Gorger himself would be jealous of such a talented and powerful rat as Watchclaw. She was so perceptive and thoughtful. She always had a plan and knew exactly how to carry it out. She was a perfectionist.

Showstep didn’t fall far from the tree. Ripred’s first-born daughter stepped on tiny paws like the ground might crumble beneath her feet, careful and tentative. She held her nose high in the air proudly, and her siblings teased her about how maybe she wanted to be a scent-seer, the way she was always walking like she was trying to catch a scent. One time, Showstep came running to Ripred, upset and angry at her siblings for just this reason. Ripred had to reassure her by saying something along the lines of, “Showstep, I’ve never met a scent-seer in my life, but I bet if I ever did meet one, they would be amazing and useful and talented, just like you. Tell your brother and sisters that ‘scent-seer’ is not an insult.” Showstep wasn’t embarrassed by the way she held herself after that.

Setjaw was not so easily affected by the opinions of her siblings. Or, the opinions of _anyone_ , really. She was stubborn to the core, and didn’t care a shred about what other rats thought of her, and Ripred thought that if he never met another living being as stubborn as Setjaw in his entire life, he’d die a happy rat. He loved her all the same, though. She was steady and comforting, tough as nails, just like him.

Packgut was Ripred’s only son. His coat was near black, and he was chunky for such a young pup. He was strong and powerful, but not quick like his sisters. Sometimes he didn’t know his own strength, though, and more often than not, it resulted in unexpected injuries in the other pups. He didn’t have many friends, and he could be a bit cynical, but he was brave and always ready to defend a sister in need.

That sister in need was almost always Silksharp. Ripred would never tell his pups this, but she was his favorite. She wasn’t proud like Showstep, or stubborn like Setjaw. She definitely wasn’t big or strong like Packgut. Silksharp was small and got scared easily. Most other rats stayed away from her because her nervousness and anxiety was contagious. Not to Ripred, though. Even when Watchclaw doubted her daughter’s health when the panic attacks struck, Ripred knew exactly how to calm her, and he saw how smart she was. She could’ve been a nibbler, the way she loved math and puzzles. While her siblings sparred and challenged each other, she prefered to sit on the sidelines and watch the rivers run or examine the rocks in the cave walls. More than anything, she loved to read, and the things she loved to read the most were the copies of the human’s prophecies in the gnawer’s own lands. Every species had their own copies carved in one place or another, and Ripred was grateful, because otherwise, what would Silksharp have to occupy her time?

He happened upon her sitting and staring up at the cave walls one time.

“The warrior will be an Overlander, won’t they, father?” she asked quietly when she noticed him. “An Overland human?”

“That’s what the prophecies say,” Ripred agreed.

“I would not want to be the warrior, anyway,” Silksharp told her father, as if she had previously been thinking of the possibility.

“Why’s that, Silksharp?” Ripred questioned.

“Because it sounds like the warrior is very sad by the end of their story,” she replied softly.

Ripred almost laughed. “Not because the warrior dies at the end?”

Silksharp looked up at him like she didn’t quite understand why her father was so amused. “I am more afraid of sadness than death.” She turned back to her scratchings in the cave floor. A tally of something mathematical he wouldn’t understand, Ripred was sure. “I would rather die happy tomorrow, than live a full lifetime of sadness.”

Ripred didn’t laugh again. “Is that so?”

“Yes,” Silksharp responded simply. She did not seem upset or sorrowful about her revelation.

“If you ever meet the warrior, you should tell them that,” Ripred offered.

Silksharp just shook her head. “But I’m so shy... You should meet them and tell them for me. Or maybe Setjaw or Packgut... they’re much braver than me.”

Ripred grinned. “You could be as brave as them someday, Silksharp. Perhaps you will never be the warrior of the prophecies, but you could be...” He tried to think of something to tell his favorite daughter.

“The princess?” Silksharp inquired.

“Yes, the princess,” Ripred agreed. “Our little codebreaker, yes?”

“That’s me,” Silksharp replied. “And that makes you the king, father.”

“I suppose it does.”

“But don’t let Showstep know she’s a princess, too, then.” Silksharp laughed. “It’ll go to her head so easily.”

“She already acts like one, doesn’t she?” Ripred admitted. “I hope your sisters are the only spoiled, stubborn princesses I meet in my time. I don’t think I would be able to stand another.”

Silksharp just laughed more. “I hope the princess from the prophecies is not like Showstep. I would want her to be like me...”

“Me, too, Silksharp,” Ripred said. “I would want her to be just like you.”


End file.
